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| Two so-called Iron Ladies at the mine site. They want the Chinese copper mine completely shut down. |
Aye Net and Thwe Thwe Win, the
daughters of farmers whose education stopped at primary school, have rocketed
to national prominence in Myanmar for their defiance of a copper mining project
run by the powerful Myanmar military and its partner, a subsidiary of a Chinese
arms manufacturer.
“Whatever
pressure they put on us, we won’t give up,” Ms. Thwe Thwe Win said in an
interview in her village on the edge of the copper mine. “I want them to shut
this project down completely.”
Myanmar’s
new civilian government, led by President Thein Sein, is moving swiftly toward
a less dictatorial society, releasing hundreds of political prisoners and
abolishing media censorship. But those changes are a world away from the
everyday realities of the impoverished countryside, where two-thirds of the
population live. In the shadow of the massive copper mine in Wethmay, the
authorities are following the old playbook of repression and harassment.
Wethmay is
one of two dozen villages affected by the mine’s planned expansion. In
December, the authorities tried to force inhabitants to move by attacking the
local monastery with hammers, carting away Buddhist statues and removing all
the furniture and equipment from the primary school. These and other incidents
prompted a series of protests and clashes with the police, some of the largest
demonstrations in Myanmar since the country’s civilian government came to power
last year.
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| Monywa copper mine. |
“Why should
you care?” Mr. Tint Aung barked into the phone. “So what if we follow them?”
The authorities also appear eager to keep foreign eyes away. During a recent two-day visit, a reporter was constantly trailed by men on motorcycles, detained by the Immigration police for an hour and told not to return to the area. His interpreter was threatened with arrest.
The authorities also appear eager to keep foreign eyes away. During a recent two-day visit, a reporter was constantly trailed by men on motorcycles, detained by the Immigration police for an hour and told not to return to the area. His interpreter was threatened with arrest.
The case has
been widely reported in privately owned publications in Myanmar, a measure of
the country’s newfound freedoms. But the government has sought to curtail
reporting of some its aspects. In March, a private weekly newspaper in Myanmar, The Voice, was sued by the Ministry of Mines after citing a report
by the country’s auditor general that pointed to corruption in the sale of a
stake in the project to the Chinese company.
At the heart
of the case are environmental concerns — opposition to the copper mine is being
championed by environmental groups that are concerned that surrounding
farmlands will be contaminated by runoff from the mine — and more broadly the
issue of land seizures.
Land grabs
are a longstanding problem in Myanmar, and activists fear they may increase in
the coming years in the rush to develop the country. Despite two laws passed
last month that seek to clarify the land rights of farmers and policies
governing vacant land, Parliament and opposition party offices have been
flooded with complaints. A Land Investigation Committee, recently set up by
Parliament, began traveling this week to several spots in the country to
investigate reports of land seizures.
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| Protesting farmers illegally blocking the mining trucks. |
The copper
mine controversy appears to have resonated in Myanmar because of the strong-arm
tactics used against Ms. Aye Net, 34, and Ms. Thwe Thwe Win, 29. The two women
are portrayed in weekly news magazines as being locked in a David-and-Goliath
struggle, two unusually courageous villagers up against a constellation of
powerful forces, including the military.